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Considered one of the most mysterious cities in Mizahar, Alvadas is called The City of Illusions. It is the home of Ionu and the notorious Inverted. This city sits on one of the main crossroads through The Region of Kalea.

Loken had never had any reason to swim. That was not due to any fear or misgivings about the sea, but he'd not had any reason to learn to swim since he was a child forced to meditate on a raft by the Ano Cult. One could say, that even though he had no fear of the sea, those experiences kept him from seeking out any reason that would require him to swim. So naturally, navigating around The Sunken Conundrum was quite the hassle for Loken to deal with.

He had just stepped across the event horizon of water that made up the libraries doorway, beset upon by the constant pressure of water that quickly engulfed him. Loken's logic always dictated that he simply continue walking, but as he took one step forward, his entire body started to float upward due to buoyancy. The Ano Cultist quickly started to float three inches off of the floor, which caused him to wave his arms around in a circle towards each of his sides.

The head librarian Hinrane Morcer hovered in the water a few feet away from him, her brow raised as she watched the man slowly spin in a circle. Loken twirled about three times before he managed to grow accustomed to the whole situation. It was not the first time he had been to the Conundrum, but it still always managed to earn its namesake.

He reached out with one of his arms to scoop at the water with a closed fingered palm. The act causing him to be propelled forward through the water. He repeated the process with his other arm, allowing his body to float upwards as he started to kick his feet too maintain his momentum. He tried his best to maintain some amount of dignity, but ended up preforming what most people would call a 'doggy paddle', on his way towards the bookshelves.

Upon reaching one of the shelves, he quickly gripped the top most shelf to hold himself steady as he looked over each one on the shelves. He slowly guided himself along until he spotted a book that seemed interesting. It was a worn, black leather spine of a book that read Keeping the Word by Q.V. Abernathy. Loken removed it from the shelf to skim through its contents, his body floating down to the ground as he used both hands to hold the book. His fingers flipped through the pages as he read, reading what appeared to be a solid page of nonsensical phrases, numbers, and various sting of letters. "What is this?" He mused aloud to himself, forcing himself to read the first page of the book rather than skim through its middle.

What he found was a book detailing the practice of Cryptography and he had opened it up on a chapter filled with examples of codes. "That makes far more sense." The book had caught enough of his interest to halt his search for any other book. He reached out at the water again, pulling at it as if he were grabbing something, then pulled at the water, causing him to fling forward into a slow glide.

It took him a chime or two to fumble his way over to a desk area in the library, then waved is hands above his head to force himself to stand fully on the ground. As he pulled off his backpack to set it on the desk, he felt like he was a stationary man again but still underwater. He ignore the randomness of the building since he wanted to read the new book, and pulled out the chair to sit down.

Loken opened the book up to its first chapter as he also removed his own personal journal from his backpack, knowing full well that he was going to want to take notes. When he uncorked his vial of ink, Loken was always shocked to find that the ink never leaked out or mixed with the water. Naturally, he soon retrieved his quill then began the long process of actually reading the book. Loken was shocked to learn that the book had a heavy focus on basic mathematics.

'okd + sxq - sc × pyb (ofob) = iyxo'

The above is a basic Shift code, hidden under the pretext of being a math problem. When removed from its hiding place, it reads 'Okdsxq sc pyb ofobiyxo'. A shift code is made by transitioning a letter down a set numerical value. In this case, all letters have been shifted ten spaces meaning A = K. In this example the first letter means E = O. When solved, the above reads 'Eating is for everyone'.

Now that you know what a shift is, you now know that its Conceptual Key is the information used to decipher a code. In the above case, the creator of the code could share A + 10 = K with someone else so they would know how to solve the code. A Conceptual Key is considered 'keyless' while other codes that require a physical item to proceed with deciphering them make those 'Keyed Codes'.

Loken carefully took notes extremely detailed notes. He was starting to understand how effective the use of simply changing one letter for another could be when dealing with keeping secrets. "So, If I just shift the letters eleven times, then 'A' would equal 'L'." He set the quill to the ink to write down his own personal code as practice.

As the quill tip scratched along the page of his journal, he wrote the phrase: "Alvadas at the Gaping Maw" It then took him a moment to mentally count each letter to then write out what it would be if it were a Keyless code."Lwglold le esp Rlatyr Xlh"

The next chapter of the book started to deal with a new form of code, that much was for sure as he skimmed over the section first before reading it in detail. He was about to continue reading when a heavy wave of water pressed against the side of his face, as if someone had swam too close to him. The invasion of his personal space cause him to turn around to see an Akvatari just listlessly swim through the library about a yard away from him, then passed within two feet of his head as the Akvatari swam over him to lay its body atop the opposite end of the same large desk he was at. It was a public space, so he offered the person no real mind.

That did not men that he didn't eye the person to see what they were like. It was obvious that the Akvatari was female given her shapely chest which was tapped down by several bands of fabric. She had long brunette hair that reached all the way down to where her waist turned into an a tail. Her wings were both vibrantly pinks with accents of deep black along the edges. Loken gave her a nod when she glanced over at him while setting down her own collection of books down onto the table. He tried to return to reading when the table started to shake again.

When he glanced up this time, he watched as the woman pulled out a chair then glided her tail end into the seat. From Loken's perspective, she now looked like a normal human since her lower half had become hidden by the desk. "Comfortable?" He said as his eyes returned to his book, half speaking to her in a tone that meant she did not have to respond if she did not want to. "No, but life is never comfortable. Just an endless thing, up until it isn't." It was a comment that lingered in the air as the two turned kept their attention on each of their respective books.

The Tavern

The above is a simple idea that will become encrypted using the Transformation Code method. This meathod is far more difficult to brake then a shift code, and yet still just as easy to break if the message is long; allowing people to count repetitive letters and replace them with well known letters, like 'E' in common. To encrypted a message, one simply gives a letter in their language a new value.

An example is turning 'M' into 'E', or making 'B' mean 'A'. Below is an idea of how to turn The Tavern into a code.

AZM ABXMQU

(T=A), (H=Z), (E=M). The.

(T=A), (A=B), (V=X),(E=M), (R=Q), (N=U). Tavern.

Loken understood the general idea of a Transformation Code, but he turned his attention to his own journal to try to make one himself. He made sure to set his pen to the ink, then tapped it lightly against the vial to remove a fair amount of excess ink to keep from dripping blotches over the page. Loken then set the tip to the page as he carefully started to trace the tip along, spelling out a simple key.

"B=Q, U=W, T=C, E=I, R=A, F=V, L=D, Y=Z. QWCCIAVDZ.

Loken nodded to himself as he double checked his own key, making sure no letters repeated themselves. Inspired by the woman's wings, he wrote down the answer to the code next to its encrypted form. "Butterfly"

Two bells passed as Loken sat comfortably, now with one leg crossed over the other, as he held the book up with one hand. The text had taken a turn towards fiction as began to read over the practical applications of cryptography through short poses and verse that illustrated imaginary situations that would require secrets to be kept.

As he kept reading, the name of one singular goddess kept popping up. That goddesses name was Akajia. Although the book was not devoted towards her, it offered up a brief summery of the domains she ruled over. "She is the night, the one who keeps the veil of shadow over all Secrets." He read in a mumble that was hardly above a whisper, not meant to be heard by anyone else. But like many who were lost in their own thoughts, simply mused aloud.

His eyes narrowed as he leaned in to take a closer look at what appeared to be a symbol drawn next to the goddesses name. It was clearly drawn there by some past reader of the book at some point in time. It was an elaborately well made black triangle, its three points were each given artistic flair through use of skillful calligraphy. It did not take Loken much time to understand from the proximity of the symbol that it represented the goddesses insignia; like Gnora and her scales.

He ran his fingers along the edge of the pages, feeling how dry they felt as he turned to the next page. It was odd how even in this watery illusion that all the books felt dry. Did that mean the water was not real? But if it was not real, then how did he float? If its a trick, then why could he feel the fills along his ribs as they breathed in water, then exhaled. It was a momentary distraction that was met with another as the woman across from him began to sing.

Loken looked up at the Akvatari to see if she knew that she was doing it, or instinctively did so while lost in thought. She appeared to be absently singing, so he tapped a finger tree times against the desk to catch her attention. "Rectify your volume, please." The words were sharp, but held no agitation of hostility within its tone. When he returned to his own reading, the woman decided to spark up a conversation with him.

"What are you reading? I heard you mention something about secrets."

In the most passive way possible, he managed to keep the conversation going by reading silently to himself, then looking up at her to tell her about it. "Did you know that trans-alphabetic code are like a variant of transformation code. But the difference is that T.A. Code uses symbols in place of letters. With each symbol corresponding to a letter."

He felt like that was a good enough response as he set the book down to take up his quill. Loken started to jot down notes about it stated that Glyphing runes was the most popular choice when Symbols were required... or he could make up his own system of hieroglyphics. He then started to randomly draw things to give himself a good idea of where to begin.

He drew a small circle, then placed a line in that circle.

This equals 'D' :

He then drew the same thing again a second separate time, however this time he added a second line that ran vertically through it. Loken set the quill back to the ink before noting down that, "this equals, 'O'". Afterwards, he made a third separate symbol next to the other two that had a third line running diagonally like an X through the vertical line and the other first line. "this equals, 'G'" Through the logic of Trans-alphabetic code, those three symbols now represented an encrypted version of the word 'Dog'.

The Akvatari woman had no real clue what Loken was even talking about. "Trans-alpha? What? Letters? Symbols?" The woman remained confused, but watched as Loken started to take notes. Loken stored his quill away by simply leaving it within the inkwell, then glanced up at her to ask her about herself since it was the well mannered thing to do. "What is your name. And if you would like to share what you are reading, I am open to hearing it."

In a strange way, she held closed her book as she held it up in the air. Then with a soft push, made it glide slowly through the water over at him. He held up a hand to catch it once it bumped against his palm. "Anthropology, the nature of culture." He read over the first page in the book, finding that it was another one that he would no doubt find interesting, but felt like it was a lesson for another day.

"I suppose this means you are planning on dealing with distant cities and specific races?" The question was asked as he held the book up to return it to her in the same manner she had given it to him, pushing it through the water to float towards the woman. "My name is Keeta. And I'm not looking to go anywhere, I'm trying to find myself."

That was such an abstract concept that it cause Loken to raise a brow. "Ah, the metaphorical searching of the soul. And not the literal finding of the self, because one can never lose their physical being, unless through maiming or amputation. And secondly, my name is Loken." Loken ended that statement in a matter of fact way, which cause the woman to raise her own brow.

"You can loose yourself through death. But also, is a Nuit lost when they obtain a new body? Is a ghost lost? Or are they not themselves until they reach their new level of being and body?"

Loken started to think over that concept, but quickly found it to be a simple question to answer. "Yes, they no longer are in their natural born physical beings. And so, have lost their natural bodies via, death. For the record, I consider a nuit to be dead given the state of their natural bodies without its soul. In a way, they are just ghosts that have greater control of a corpse. "

It was at that moment that he and Keeta both became distracted by their books to discus the nature life and death.

I love reading cryptography threads, I've discovered. You've got me in the mood to write one of my own, although that's not going to happen. It was a fun read, and it was nice to see Loken learning about these different types. I enjoyed it!

Please mark your request as graded, and PM me if you have any questions or concerns on your grades. Hope you enjoy!